Outdoors: Too soon to raise quota on flounder

Competition between commercial and recreational fishing interests is getting serious.

On Jan. 17, Captain Jason Colby of the Little Sister attended the fishery meeting in Gloucester to fight a proposal to double the commercial quota on winter flounder from 250 to 500 pounds per day.

Colby thought this public hearing, inconveniently set at 10 a.m. on a weekday, minimized input of working recreational anglers. Being held in a commercial fishing town, the meeting naturally attracted a disproportionate number of commercial interests. Colby laments that he and recreational fishing writer Ron Powers were the only attendees representing recreational interests.

Over the past 12 years, fishing every day during the winter flounder season, Captain Colby has witnessed the dramatic comeback of our once severely depleted flounder stocks in Boston Harbor. Fishermen, many from afar, have consequently come back, too, infusing much into our state’s economy. They book hotel rooms, buy bait and tackle, eat in restaurants — and their spouses shop while they fish.

In our short 8-10 week season, thousands of local and out-of-state fishermen participate, catching thousands of flounder in the harbor. Colby contends that a single dragger can kill far more flounder in one tow than the whole fleet of recreational anglers can catch in a week.

Colby feels that raising quotas as soon as a species begins recovery makes no sense.

“Virtually every species that has been managed in this way is either currently in trouble or headed for trouble,” he said. “Quotas should be increased only when a species is fully recovered across its entire range. Boston Harbor is ground zero for winter flounder, and while it is showing signs of recovery, there is still no fall fishery, which used to be spectacular. That means the recovery still has a long way to go.”

With winter flounder stocks still severely depleted up and down the East Coast, the decision to increase quotas here, a core area that could provide spreading brood stock to other deficient areas, seems questionable at best. What’s going on? Many are wondering if fisheries managers are once again caving in to political interests.

Striped bass petition
Concerned recreational fishermen are also trying to help plummeting stocks of stripers by reducing the present daily limit of two fish to just one. Bradford Burns of Stripers Forever shared with me that the recreational catch of striped bass in Massachusetts has decreased 87 percent over the last five years.

Since more large, breeding-size striped bass are caught in Massachusetts than anywhere else, Stripers Forever is urging concerned anglers to sign a petition asking the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to reduce both commercial and recreational harvests by at least 50 percent starting with the 2013 season.

To sign the petition, contact Jim Bender at the Lower Forty on Madison Street in Worcester at (508) 752-4004.

Quota cuts coming
Commercial cod and haddock fishermen are in serious trouble. John Bullard, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast office has affirmed that those populations are so low that there will need to be drastic cuts in catches next season.

We’ve been postponing this bitter pill for several years, so it’s time to take the medicine. Some fishermen say the quota cuts will mean the end of the line for them.

There will be pain and protests from suffering families, fleets, ports, and entire communities who will be devastated by the new regulations. We’ll surely see politicians trying to butt into fisheries management decisions. In the last election, Senator Scott Brown tried to influence stock management. But there’s no way to get our stocks back if we continue to plunder them when they’re disappearing.

Some fishermen don’t want to believe scientists’ arguments, pointing to some previous stock assessments that were inaccurate. But all indications this time unequivocally point to an inevitable crash if we don’t take action now.

In the past, regulators caved in on a regular basis to political pressures that allowed overfishing to continue, bringing us to the brink we now face. The present generation is paying for the sins of their fathers. Ballard admits scientific management culpability, too.

Scientists set the limits, and they’ve done a poor job by relenting so often. “We set the rules and clearly the rules have failed.”

Many boats are likely to quit the cod and haddock business, at least temporarily, fishing instead for lobster or monkfish until stocks rebound. But some fishermen will no doubt pack it all up and be forced to seek a new way of life, as so many other members of our population have had to do. Fishing has never been easy — and we didn’t help it by improperly regulating it in the past. Taking no action leaves the fishery with no future.

There are, amid the doom and gloom, pockets of good cod fishing for recreational anglers willing to risk chills, sea sickness, ice on the rails and slush on the decks of party boats. Block Island has been productive. The Frances Fleet has been going out to their honey holes, weather permitting, averaging five fish per angler, hooking some big red hake and ocean perch, too. There seem to be many herring around, keeping the cod well nourished.

Lack of good ice
Despite a brutal stretch of winter cold, many ice fishermen (my son and I included) have been very disappointed by the lack of ice on the best, deep trout ponds at Cape Cod. This may prove yet another year in an ever-longer line of disappointing warm winters. But shallow local and more northern waters are providing good ice fishing opportunities.

Numerous successful reports are coming in from smelt camps around Merrymeeting Bay in southern Maine, and pike fishermen are taking big fish at Onota Lake, in western Massachusetts, where higher elevations perennially give us thicker ice.

But you don’t have to travel that far for these sharp-toothed crocodile mimics: Quaboag Pond and Barton’s Cove have good populations, too. And don’t forget the big brood stock salmon at Comet Pond this week.

Feb. 8-10 — New England Fishing & Outdoor Expo, DCU Center, Worcester. New leaders and seminars. Meet and learn from local and national authorities on hunting and fishing; meet outfitters to book trips; top equipment at discount prices. Info: www.newenglandfishingexpo.com, gofishdan@davisad.com or (774) 243-1442.

Feb. 9-10 — 14th annual Rutland Sportsman’s Club ice fishing derby. Fish may be taken from any waters in the state and be brought to the club for measurement. Info: Ronnie Howe (774) 696-6465 or the club at (508) 886-4721.